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. 2021 Dec;6(12):e007321.
doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007321.

Who funded the research behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine?

Samuel Cross  1 , Yeanuk Rho  2 , Henna Reddy  3 , Toby Pepperrell  4 , Florence Rodgers  5 , Rhiannon Osborne  6 , Ayolola Eni-Olotu  1 , Rishi Banerjee  7 , Sabrina Wimmer #  7   8 , Sarai Keestra #  9
Affiliations

Who funded the research behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine?

Samuel Cross et al. BMJ Glob Health. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: The Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, Vaxzevira or Covishield) builds on two decades of research and development (R&D) into chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine (ChAdOx) technology at the University of Oxford. This study aimed to approximate the funding for the R&D of ChAdOx and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and to assess the transparency of funding reporting mechanisms.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review and publication history analysis of the principal investigators to reconstruct R&D funding the ChAdOx technology. We matched award numbers with publicly accessible grant databases. We filed freedom of information (FOI) requests to the University of Oxford for the disclosure of all grants for ChAdOx R&D.

Results: We identified 100 peer-reviewed articles relevant to ChAdOx technology published between January 2002 and October 2020, extracting 577 mentions of funding bodies from acknowledgements. Government funders from overseas (including the European Union) were mentioned 158 times (27.4%), the UK government 147 (25.5%) and charitable funders 138 (23.9%). Grant award numbers were identified for 215 (37.3%) mentions; amounts were publicly available for 121 (21.0%). Based on the FOIs, until December 2019, the biggest funders of ChAdOx R&D were the European Commission (34.0%), Wellcome Trust (20.4%) and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (17.5%). Since January 2020, the UK government contributed 95.5% of funding identified. The total identified R&D funding was £104 226 076 reported in the FOIs and £228 466 771 reconstructed from the literature search.

Conclusion: Our study approximates that public and charitable financing accounted for 97%-99% of identifiable funding for the ChAdOx vaccine technology research at the University of Oxford underlying the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine until autumn 2020. We encountered a lack of transparency in research funding reporting.

Keywords: COVID-19; health policy; vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors of this paper are all members of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Europe. SW is a member of the Executive Committee of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Global and FR is the National Coordinator of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines UK. SK and RO are members of the People’s Health Movement and the WHO Watch initiative. RO is currently policy director for Students for Global Health UK. However, views expressed in this paper are their own and are not necessarily shared with the organisations the authors are affiliated with.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram for the ChAdOx funding scoping review. ChAdOx, chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of mentions for each funder type from the academic literature identified in the scoping review. PPP, public–private partnership.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of mentions for which grant amounts were publicly available from the academic literature identified in the scoping review.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Funding given to support the research and development of the chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine technology until January 2020, based on freedom of information to the University of Oxford, sorted by funder type. PPP, public–private partnership.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Funding given to support the R&D of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine from January 2020 onwards, based on FOIs to the University of Oxford, sorted of funder type. PPP, public–private partnership.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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